China Glaze Zombie Zest

As promised, here is the (sort of) final installment of my olive polish obsession.  I've actually had this one for several months, but as it was one of the stranger polishes I've ever brought home, in addition to the name, I thought it'd be best to save for Halloween time.  It's about time to get this one outta my untrieds! :-)

First of all, I'm PRETTY sure by "Zest,"  China Glaze meant "liveliness" or "flair."  But my offbeat sense of humor makes me think of this:

Yeah.  Like "Eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat...with a dash of zombie zest for garnish."  I know.  LOL

Zombie Zest (the polish, not the garnish) is an odd bird.  It's this murky, swampy greenish brown jelly with a gold-green duochrome-y glass-flecked finish.  The duochrome isn't super strong, but it's definitely there - flecks gently changing from gold to more of a true green.  The formula is a little on the thin side, so I needed three coats.  My Ott-Lite is x-ray vision-ing this polish - I promise it's not quite that sheer in real life (It's more like the pointer finger).  The application, however, was ah-maze-ing!  It practically applied itself and was super easy to clean up.  Definitely click to enlarge these photos so you can see all of what's going on in this strange polish!

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Now, I'm not gonna lie.  Zombie Zest is NOT going to be everyone's cup of tea.  My hubby loved it (especially for the name), but my coworker literally said, "Ew!  That's disgusting!" when she saw it.  A few months ago, I probably would've hated this polish, but given my new-found love of ugly-pretty polishes, and kind of "building up" to it with my previous olive polishes, I love it!  It's so weird and ugly and AWESOME all at the same time!  Plus, it can be worn two ways!  I'll show you Zombie Zest layered over black next time.  :-)

Just for funsies, I'll put the comparison I did with Zombie Zest and Butter London Wallis here as well:

(L) Butter London Wallis, (R) China Glaze Zombie Zest

Having worn both of these polishes now, I can say with 100% certainty that they are NOT dupes.  Not even close!  In addition to the other reasons I listed before, I found Zombie Zest to be much more brownish in its base color.  Like, way murkier.  Also, it's way sparklier - my camera didn't really like photographing this one.  Plus, it's a jelly!  Woo-hoo!  It's definitely the "uglier" (but in no means less awesome) of the two.  I do prefer Wallis more, as it's a bit more wearable and more universally flattering, but if you're into ugly-pretty or these strange golden-olive colors, I definitely suggest giving Zombie Zest a try!  Zombies are all the rage right now, after all!  ;-)